Starting in April 2017, the Internal Revenue Service will be using four private debt collection agencies to collect unpaid taxes which have been owing for some time, and which the IRS itself is no longer attempting to collect. In the past, consumers could identify IRS tax scam calls easily, because they knew that the Internal Revenue Service would not call a citizen about payment of taxes. However, moving forward, certain taxpayers may be receiving calls from authorized debt collection firms about unpaid taxes, on behalf of IRS.

This may make it harder for consumers to identify scammers who may call, falsely claiming to represent the IRS and demanding private financial information.

Protect yourself! Get BBB tips on how to tell the difference between a scammer and a legitimate debt collector here.